Sheffield-based artist Alex Storer has been producing instrumental electronic music under the name of The Light Dreams since 2006. What started out as a personal hobby gradually evolved into something he was confident in releasing independently, and he now has a growing discography of atmospheric and thought-provoking albums. Alex is honorary musician for the Institute for Interstellar Studies.

Music

"After years of being a passionate music fan of artists such as David Bowie, Jean Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Peter Gabriel, John Foxx, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan and Simple Minds (among others!), the time finally came in early 2006 for me to try and make my kind of music. And to my surprise, despite having no musical training and little technical knowledge, it worked! Two pivotal albums for me are Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygène and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells – both of which I still love to this day, and are what also set me on course to produce my own instrumental music. My work has also been likened to that of Vangelis and Tangerine Dream – where atmosphere and mood are key, and the music is designed to paint pictures in the mind of the listener. I find that painting and making music are similar activities – one uses colours, one uses sound, but both use layers and a large amount of imagination. I've even found one to influence the other! My music work remained a purely personal project until 2012, when I first made it publically available. Later that same year, I was invited to be Honorary Interstellar Musician for the Institute for Interstellar Studies™, so it seems my music has found a home, and it's going to be an exciting journey from here..."

Made in 2009, MECHANICAL DRIVE is a dark and frenetic journey through a future world driven by independent machines and technology. Perhaps best described as the soundtrack to a science fiction movie yet to be made, the music of Mechanical Drive takes a lot of inspiration from the work of classic SF authors such as Isaak Asimov, Philip K Dick and Arthur C Clarke.

"I am primarily a visual artist, but I love music of all sorts, and from the time I first heard the Moog synthesiser played by Walter – now Wendy – Carlos I listened to electronic music whenever I could. Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre; I found that when I was working the music created by these artistes would often inspire me."

This recording is an original soundtrack to artist David A. Hardy's new edit of 1957 Russian film Road to the Stars, originally directed by Pavel Klushantsev. Hardy has taken Klushantsev’s original docu-film, and created the first ever English subtitled version. This new edit includes translations of dialogue and the original factual information, as well as new artistic and cinematic references, which further emphasise the influence and vision of Road to the Stars. For this project, I decided to step away from my usual electronic style, instead favouring orchestral sounds. My aim was to create a symphonic score with modern appeal but that also works with the original Soviet-era film.

Tracklist:

1. Road to the Stars Part One 11:46 2. Road to the Stars Part Two 06:28 3. Road to the Stars Part Three 11:25 4. Road to the Stars Part Four 04:31 5. Road to the Stars Part Five 12:20

The Light Dreams - Into the Light (2012)

Originally recorded in 2007, INTO THE LIGHT is a rich and worldly album inspired by travel and dreams. This new 2012 version of the album has been completely remixed and enhanced, while keeping the atmosphere and emotion of the original. The album's title came about after a vivid dream, where I was lifted from the ground, taken through the sky and beyond the clouds and was suddenly traveling towards a huge blinding light – but I awoke as I was about to enter it. This album is the soundtrack to the journey into that light and beyond. INTO THE LIGHT is also a very personal album. Many of the ideas came to me during a special stay in the Andalusian mountains of Spain and further inspiration came while touring the majestic Alhambra Palace.

It is somewhat ironic that while sound is absent in the near vacuum of space, there has always been in my mind a musical soundtrack to accompany our exploration of the Universe. There is an awe, a wonder, a profundity to the vastness of the cosmos that is matched by an eerie sense of things greater and older and more monstrous than anything we can comprehend on Earth. As we take our first tentative steps into those starry depths, we begin the greatest adventure of all. The stars call to us; we belong there. Electronic music in particular seems able to communicate the exotic wonders of the Galaxy, from alien worlds and brilliant stars to the sleek metal hulls of the starships that explore the cosmos and the daring spirit of their crews. Whether it be Moog synthesisers or blaster beams, the sophisticated software of digital music suites or the quaint alienness of a theremin, their electronic tones capture the essence of the mystery of space...